Thursday, April 21, 2011

Despite stiff competition from Star Trek and District 9,Moon was the best science fiction movie of 2009 proving that no matter how much flash, lasers, special effects, explosions and aliens you have in a sci-fi movie it can still be bested by a well written, well acted tale that hearkened back to the days of hard-core sci-fi even on a 10th of the blockbuster budget. Duncan Jones, the man to accomplish this has just brought us his next movie, Source Code and I’m pleased to say he’s still on form.Jones has taken something as rudimentary as time-travel and wrapped a suitably interesting plot around it in many layers much as he did with cloning in Moon. There is a revelation in the movie but no world-breaking mind-fuck like The Matrix or Inception here. It is a very simple concept that once again follows the human rather than super-human angle too prevalent in modern sci-fi. Jones is a true explorer of the human condition and through the central protagonist Captain Colter Stevens he makes the audience think what we would do rather than show us.

Without delving too much into the plot, Stevens [Jake Gyllenhaal] is being sent back through time in a computer simulation to occupy the body and experience 8 minutes of the life of Sean Fentress, a train passenger before the train is destroyed by terrorists. He must find clues as to who was responsible and can't do it on one run so he constantly has to go back into the simulation to experience the same time period but do things differently with what he learns each previous time. Jones' pacing of the films action as well as both slightly and radically altering the way each 8 minute period plays out is what keeps you glued to this.

Gyllenhaal has come a long way from being the moody weirdo Donnie Darko some 10 years ago now. He was the twerp in The Day After Tomorrow, he made a name for himself in such dogshit as Brokeback Mountain and caught my ire when he portrayed the “blight on the Corps” the whining bitch Cpl. Anthony Swafford in Jarhead. He put in a good turn in the sprawling adventure and longest videogame cutscene ever The Prince Of Persia last year and recently had the enviable pleasure of spending much of his last movie in bed with a naked Anne Hathaway [No I don't know what that was called I just read it had a naked Anne Hathaway]. Source Code is by far his greatest performance to date and he deserves any and all the accolades he recives for his protrayal of Stevens.

Two-time Whopper Award winner MichelleM:I-3Monaghan is Christina, a friend to Sean Fentress whose body Stevens is occupying and whom he gets to know due to the fact that she's always sitting on the train with him when the simulation resets. Vera The DepartedFarmiga is Capt. Goodwin, Stevens' only link to reality while he's "in the machine". JefferyCasino RoyaleWright rounds off the cast with a truly bizarre performance as the laughably effeminate scientist in charge of the Source Code project.

One unkind reviewer elsewhere has slated the movie comparing it to a blatant and horrendous rip off of a modern-day Quantum Leap episode. But the joke is on him as Jones actually cast Scott Bakula himself to cameo-voice Captain Stevens’ father whom we only hear through a phone call which Bakula answers with “Oh God!”… classic! Jones has made no secret of reading British sci-fi comic book 2000AD which is filled with vignettes that explore every theme that sci-fi writers have been imagining since the time of Jules Verne. The basic premise of Source Code may remind you of what you’re read there or perhaps even have seen in Quantum Leap or something like The Outer Limits but it’s not enough to call foul and scream plagiarism. Jones took a script by Ben Ripley [known only for straight to video sequels of the Species franchise] and reworked it to make it his own. He's competent enough to use materiel he’s read to form the genesis of an idea and flesh it out in his own completely unique style and obviously did this with Ripley's script to make it real.

Final Verdict: This is the way science fiction should be made, entertaining and focus on the people not technology with a thought provoking and morally ambiguous ending. So why is there only one person in all of Hollywood doing it?

STAR WARS: Force For Change Founding Member

About Me

Years of being dropped on the head as a child has led me to believe that I'm a U.S. Marine General, a senior officer of a UN unit dedicated to defending the planet from things that the world doesn't believe exist. My spiritual beliefs are those formed from the work of George Lucas whom I consider to be a deity. Politically, I'm a right-wing authoritarian and believe diplomacy is achieved by those with the bigger gun. I enjoy listening to scores from movies and TV, watching action, military and sci-fi movies and television, playing 3D shooters and RPGs on the PC, reading comic-books and I adore the impressive sound of my own voice. I recorded 2IGTV; an award-nominated Podcast with my friend Mark centred on news from the world of popular culture which ran for 64 Episodes between '05 and '09. As an actor I've appeared in two major Irish short films and the pilot of a web-series. I've something to say about almost everything and you've made the wise choice of coming here to benefit from my vast wisdom, knowledge and ego - enjoy!

THE GENERAL'S RATINGS

No Star: The greatest load of shit ever, no redeeming qualities. It's creators are blacklisted and will be shot on sight if they don't redeem themselves before I meet them. Seriously - Dear God why?

1 Star (*): Awful crap. A complete waste of time. Should not have been made.

1.5 Stars (*1/2): Bad movie. I'm not happy about having paid to see this.

2 Stars (**): Dissapointing. Not that good at all except for perhaps a few select scenes or elements. I'll choose not to see this again.

2.5 Stars (**1/2): Glad I saw it, but ultimately not good enough. I won't turn it off if it appears on TV, but I'll have it on while doing something else, just to wait for the cool bit I remember.

3 Stars (***): Meh! Middle of the road movie. Balance between love and hated. May watch this on TV years later / may not.

3.5 Stars (***1/2): Enjoyable, but I would need to see it again, possibly on TV before I would purchase it.

4 Stars (****): Extreamly good. I would prefer to watch this again on Blu Ray a year or two on rather than see it on TV, but...

4.5 Stars (****1/2): Several minor flaws but not enough to distract you from excellence. Most likely will be added to my BD collection.

5 Stars (*****): An outstanding work of art. Practically Flawless. To be added to my BD collection.

5 Star Plus (*****+): One of the finest examples of it's genre.
Flawless. Automatically becomes part of my BD collection upon release.

EXEMPTION GRANTED: To be granted an exemption, a movie has literally to be amongst the greatest movies of all time. Examples include Robocop (1987), The Matrix (1999), Mission Impossible 2 (2000), Transformers (2007) and Iron Man 2 (2010). For religious purposes it is accepted that all Star Wars movies are exempt by default and cannot be reviewed.

Brigadier General Creedon is a Class-1 Nutter, he is not affiliated with a recognised news service, an officer of the US Marine Corps, a member of the organised Jedi Order or has ever slept with Scarlett Johannson. The General's Medal Of Honor is made of painted lead and bits of copper.

"If you don't like the news, go out and make some of your own!" -Scoop Nisker